CHINA and Hungary signed 18 new agreements and memorandums of understanding today to deepen their economic and cultural co-operation during a visit to the central European country by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

President Xi and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban held talks in the capital Budapest as part of the Chinese leader’s final stop on a five-day European tour that also took in Serbia and France. 

During a press briefing following the talks, Mr Orban praised the “continuous, uninterrupted friendship” between the two countries since his tenure began in 2010, and promised that Hungary would continue to host further Chinese investments.

He said: “I would like to assure the president that Hungary will continue to provide fair conditions for Chinese companies investing in our country, and that we will create the opportunity for the most modern Western and the most modern eastern technologies to meet and build co-operation in Hungary.”

Mr Orban added: “Looking back at the world economy and commerce of 20 years ago, it doesn't resemble at all what we’re living in today. 

“Then, we lived in a unipolar world, and now we live in a multipolar world order, and one of the main columns of this new world order is China.”

In December, Hungary announced that one of the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturers, China’s BYD, will open its first European production factory in the south of the country.

Hungary is also hosting several Chinese battery plants and hopes to become a global hub of lithium ion battery manufacturing, and has undertaken a railway project, part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Mr Xi said he and Mr Orban agreed the initiative “is highly consistent with Hungary’s strategy of opening to the east,” and that China supports Hungary in playing a greater role within the EU on promoting China-EU relations.